In the new box office week that started on July 15, two major new films in North American theaters were released, namely "Blooded Romeo" produced by Gaomen Pictures, a subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment, and "Big League" produced by Paramount.

Last year, the Working Title Films team, which produced famous films such as "Four Weddings and One Funeral", "Murder Green Toe", "Furious", "Notting Hill" and other famous films, directly included Daenerys Entertainment. Simon selected the first three projects from the other party's reserved scripts, namely "Four Weddings and One Funeral", "Love Deep in My Heart" and "Blooded Romeo".

The first two films have been released. "Four Weddings and One Funeral" was released at the Valentine's Day schedule at the beginning of the year and then caused a global movie viewing craze.

"Love Deep in My Heart" was thrown into early March because of the poor quality of the film. It was a complete failure.

Finally, the script of "Blooded Romeo" was handed over by Simon to Quentin Tarantino, who had completely changed his career because of his big butterfly, as the other party's second project after "The Dog in the Water".

"Blooded Romeo" tells the story of an FBI agent who relies on selling tainted witnesses to hide in exchange for black money in exchange for black money after a betrayal.

After Quentin took over this script that was very suitable for his personal style, he made great modifications based on his own preferences.

After the project was launched, although the budget was only $15 million, relying on the extensive connections accumulated by Daenerys Entertainment over the years, the film also attracted a series of famous Hollywood movie stars to play low-paid or even free guest appearances based on the male lead Gary Oldman. Including Robert De Niro, who has worked with Daenerys Entertainment for many years, Famick Jansen, the actor of Wonder Woman, Madonna, who likes Quentin's "Drunk in the Water", John Travolta, who should have turned around this year, has shown her face to the point of being more or less in this movie.

Compared with the original version of "Blooded Romeo", which was completely "new" and was officially launched, the major media score of North American media received a comprehensive media score of 8.7 on the first day of its official opening.

In fact, if it weren't for the internal trial stage, Gaomen Pictures would not have put this movie in the summer season.

As a non-mainstream crime thriller that needs to take the reputation route, the number of screens of "Blooded Romeo" still reaches 2,031 yuan.

At the same time, Paramount's "Big League" was still the "Big League" children's film type like "Home Imperial". It tells the story of a little boy accidentally inheriting the baseball team left by his grandfather and using his unique wisdom and wisdom to lead the team to the championship.

The script is obviously trying to capture the successful experiences of films such as "Flying Over the Future", "The Red Pink League" and "Home Imperial", but unfortunately it failed to do so.

A 3.3-point media score means that another summer cannon fodder is born.

Paramount probably doesn't have much expectations for "Big League", and only gave 1,532 screens to open, and obviously turned his expectations to Harrison Ford's new film "The Eyebrow Chasing" released next week.

Simon returned to Los Angeles on July 16, in Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment's popularity gradually faded, and many people's attention turned to the acquisition of DreamWorks Films, which Spielberg and others were preparing for and France's Vivendi's acquisition of Disney Pictures.

The biggest news about DreamWorks recently is undoubtedly the news that software tycoon Bill Gates invested $500 million in his personal name to join the company.

Since the unhappiness in the pre-installation cooperation of IE browser, while increasing Microsoft's layout in the Internet industry, it has been constantly using various means to eliminate the impact of the Westeros system on Microsoft, and even some important board meetings deliberately forget the representatives of the Westeros system.

Simon just watched it coldly.

If Microsoft completely moves to the opposite side of the Westeros system, it is actually not a bad thing. Of course, the premise is that students from the Westeros system must first buy back Microsoft's shares close to 20% of the Westeros system.

With the advent of the new technology wave, Microsoft's stock price has exceeded US$50 billion. Although it is still far from its former highest point, if the students from the gate are willing to spend $10 billion in cash to buy back Microsoft stocks, Simon will not refuse.

Unfortunately, $10 billion in cash is not something that anyone can do.

However, 500 million US dollars is not a big money for students with a personal net worth of more than 20 billion US dollars at this stage.

This software tycoon obviously had the idea of ​​many wealthy people pursuing fame after they became famous.

As for the results.

Simon has proved it once in his memory.

Returning in a miserable state.

On Disney, after the news of Vivendi's contact with Disney's senior executives was exposed, Michael Eisner immediately denied it.

However, a lot of subsequent news proved this.

After Jeffrey Carsonberg resigned, considering that Disney will definitely adjust its management in the future once it is acquired, Michael Orwitz, who originally intended to join Disney as president of Frank Wells, who will retire next month, also began to stay on the wait-and-see.

Disney is basically a Volkswagen holding company at this stage.

However, Disney's two major shareholders, the Bass family in Texas and the Disney family, the founder of the company, still hold 25% and 11% of Disney's shares respectively, with a total of 36%. It can basically be determined that Disney's ownership will be born after the acquisition.

According to Simon's news, the Disney family strongly opposed the acquisition of the company, but the Bass family was not determined.

Disney's downhill in the past two years, the continued turmoil in management, and the European Disneyland Paris in Paris are like a mess that may explode at any time, making the Bass family feel that taking advantage of the company's current value and cashing out gloves is a good choice.

Now, the Vivendi Group, which is trying to acquire one party, and the Disney management and the Disney family, which boycott the acquisition of one party, are all trying their best to win the support of the Bass family.

After Simon and Joseph Schrapp re-established lobbying strategy for media integration bans, they returned to Los Angeles and were also considering how to help the Bass family make up their 'decision'.

Daenerys Cinema.

It is Monday, July 18th.

A large office in the Cinema Administrative District is underway for the group's weekly senior management, Simon is in Los Angeles, and is naturally present.

"The investment plan for the group's cash reserves is roughly the same. In order to avoid risks and, for the next stage of expansion, the funds we obtained from the IPO and the company's original cash reserves will only invest in fixed income products with very low risk and can be cashed out in the short term. On Wednesday, Mr. Lawrence Fink, CEO of Black Rock Asset Management, will also come to Los Angeles to explain to the board of directors in person. So, for the next topic, about Universal Studios Osaka, the president of the theme park business, Bruce Peck, submitted a proposal to me last week, believing that Universal Studios should add attractions with local Japanese cultural characteristics. At the same time, he also put forward some suggestions. The information is in your hands, so you can take a look first."

After Amy Pascal said, the core senior executives who were able to participate in the meeting bowed their heads and read the information.

Although their respective management businesses are different, Simon firmly believes in the management method of collective efforts. In order to avoid the company falling into misunderstandings due to the wrong ideas of a senior management, many more important issues will be discussed together at the senior management meeting.

The final conclusion of the IPO has been over recently. Excluding various commissions and handling fees, Daenerys Entertainment Group still received more than $5.4 billion in cash. In addition, before its listing, Daenerys Entertainment Group's own cash reserves reached $2.7 billion, but this total of $8.1 billion in funds has exceeded the market value of several other major studios in Hollywood.

Simon did not intend to use this money to repay Daenerys Entertainment's debt, and there were no major projects to invest in the short term, so he planned to invest in the Black Rock Asset Management Company and gain a certain amount of value through investment in fixed income financial products such as treasury bonds, agreement deposits, and 3A-level corporate bonds.

The fundamental goal is actually just to resist inflation and make profits optional.

In fact, of course there are more lucrative investment channels, but since it has been listed, Daenerys Entertainment's capital flow will be regulated by the board of directors, shareholders and SEC, and it is impossible to use it at will. Moreover, if a huge amount of funds exceeding 8 billion US dollars is invested in certain fields, the situation will be very big, and public disclosure will be required. It may not be a target for some people, so it is better to seek stability.

Simon sorted out this matter while looking through the planning of Bruce Peck, president of theme park business.

Universal Studios Osaka began planning in 1991, and broke ground in mid-1992. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year and will be opened in the first half of next year.

The cinema has already had a complete plan since its construction, and it was impossible to add additional projects. However, one of the "Space Fantasy Train" projects was proved to have safety risks some time ago. For theme parks, even if tourists feel that it is not so exciting, safety must be guaranteed first. What's more, this is not a core project such as "Jurassic Park" and "Great White Sharks Water Park". Simon personally approved the cancellation of this attraction, and then a vacancies appeared.

Looking through the information in his hand, at one moment, Simon's mind flashed with inspiration and thought of another thing.

In the conference room, Nancy Brill had already spoken first: "I don't think this is credible. In terms of theme park management, we need to adapt to the Japanese cultural and living habits, so that we can achieve better localization, just like Tokyo Disneyland. However, for the setting of attractions, I believe that Japanese tourists want to see American culture by buying tickets to enter the park, not their own things."

"I think I can try it," said Danny Morris, president of New World Pictures. "What Nancy said actually makes sense, but we can also Americanize Japanese culture. Hollywood never excludes cultures from direct countries."

"The more important question now is," said Ella Deutschman, president of Gaomen Pictures. "Universal Studios Osaka will open Easter next year, and it is already mid-July. Is it enough time to recreate a Japanese cultural classic? Is it difficult to simply build it, but plan it from scratch. So it is better to choose mature projects from our existing theme parks to transplant it, first to make sure that the opening of Easter next year will not be delayed. The disaster at Disney Paris is largely due to delays."

Mark Belford, the group’s vice president of global operations, also said at this time: “I agree with Ella’s opinion that ensuring that it is completed and open according to the plan is very important for our first theme park overseas.”

Everyone was talking nonsense, and Simon never expressed his opinion.

After more than ten minutes of discussion, everyone finally decided to transplant mature attractions from the existing Universal Studios in Los Angeles and Universal Orlando to most Universal Studios.

When Amy finally looked at Simon, Simon nodded.

This year's meeting lasts until 11:30 noon.

After the meeting, the others left for the restaurant to have a meal, and Simon called Amy.

From the issue of Universal Studios Osaka, Amy found that Simon was a little absent-minded. When the meeting room was only the two of them, Amy said first: "Simon, Panasonic invited you to visit Japan when it was IPO at the beginning of the month, and there was also Universal Studios. Maybe you should go to Japan during this period."

During this IPO, according to the agreement signed with Daenerys Entertainment when Panasonic gave up the acquisition of MCA three years ago, Panasonic initially invested in Daenerys Entertainment in the form of a loan and exchanged all the $1 billion invested in Daenerys Entertainment Group at the issue price. At this time, it was also one of the small shareholders of Daenerys Entertainment, holding 45 million shares, which was equivalent to taking away one-fifth of the 250 million new shares at one time, accounting for 1.9% of the total share capital of Daenerys Entertainment.

After Daenerys Entertainment's IPO, the stock price continued to rise. In fact, a large part of the stocks were taken away by Daenerys Entertainment stakeholders. Among them, Black Rock Asset Management Company subscribed a full 20 million shares. In addition, a large number of stocks awarded to Daenerys Entertainment employees in advance generally have a 3 to 6-month restriction period, which led to not many stocks that eventually flowed into the secondary market for trading.

Market demand far exceeds the stock supply, and stock prices naturally rise.

He has been tangled by the Hurst family for most of the first half of the year, and Simon has never left the United States much. Hearing Amy say this, Simon nodded and smiled: "The Japanese may just be polite, and they may not necessarily welcome me to be a guest in their hearts."

Amy smiled.

She did not forget the "Westero effect" in the past.

After joking, Amy said, "You were a little distracted just now. Simon, what happened?"

Girl A brought in at this time, Simon picked up the coffee and said to Amy: "You know, I have been thinking about how to get Disney shareholders to make the decision to sell this company in the past few days, and I just happened to have inspiration."
Chapter completed!